Plans for the reintroduction of refueling to F1 in 2017 look to be dead in the water following a meeting at which representatives of the teams expressed unanimous opposition to it.
It's understood that the FIA's Charlie Whiting will now report the findings of the meeting back to the F1 Strategy Group, whose members came up with the idea in their May 14 gathering.
Thursday night's regular F1 team managers' meeting morphed into a meeting of the Sporting Working Committee, whose role is to refine regulations. Refueling was one of two main items on the agenda along with 2016 tire rules.
Surprisingly, perhaps the main opposition to refueling was on the basis that it would be detrimental to the show, rather than cost or safety.
Data analyzed by various team strategists and presented at the meeting provided solid proof that refueling would not improve the racing – for example, in 2010, the year after it was stopped, there were twice as many overtaking moves as in the previous year.
It was also agreed that if refueling came back it would again have to be on the basis of drivers qualifying on race fuel, a concept that the teams felt was not successful, as it did not present a true picture of who had the fastest car.
Although cost was not the main driver of the decision, it's estimated that a return to refueling would cost $1.5M in the first year, and then more than $700,00 a year thereafter. Some teams have expressed doubts over safety, as the desire to have fast pit stops that depends on the tire changing time would require much faster flow rates than previously, for example, a 33 liters per second flow as opposed to 12, as was the case until 2009.
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